


the one where rhaegar is the mad woman in the attic

by bisexualgansey



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 14:58:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11831121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualgansey/pseuds/bisexualgansey
Summary: the self-indulgent "elia gets all she deserves" au we need





	the one where rhaegar is the mad woman in the attic

elia remembers the little red room of the red keep, filled with scrolls and scribbles. 

their room. 

that's what he used to call it. until her illness worsened. until the maesters came with their whispers. until she found the doors of his room locked.

his room. 

she should have known it would happen this way, wordlessly and carelessly. her husband was efficient, if anything. 

she found that she had a taste for the oddities of a married life that allowed for some freedom. she would not enjoy the privilege of being used again. her body, no longer a plural possessive, felt strange and foreign to her touch. it was a continent to discover, an adventure.

she belonged to herself again. 

their room turned into the place where he hid from her. with time, it even came to feel like it had been like that from the very beginning. they went back to being strangers with the ease of indifference.

it had been a sad union and only rhaenys and aegon remained, a thread binding her to him.

if only he'd glance at them, from times to times. 

she knew why he wouldn't. rhaenys was prone to laughter, so alive, bursting with impatience and aegon was an infant still, but the glint in his mischievous eyes bore no resemblance to the lonely prince. 

these were her children. 

they yearned to visit sunspear, they clamored for the sun. no spirits of summerhall came to visit their dreams, no prophecies of doom ever captured their childlike imaginations. they could play at being sullen but their purples eyes laughed and laughed and laughed. 

rhaegar had been disappointed. 

oh, what a dull man he was, her husband. he hid in his chambers, played his harp and travelled with his griffin lord. there was no longer any talk of prophecy, for he had grown quite ill. they said he saw visions, things that weren't there. they said he had grown a little mad. 

she took charge and cut the thread. 

she taught rhaenys about the dornish peppers, the pouring rains and the vipers. she sung her songs, stories about the valor of heroes from her homeland to her son aegon, in his crib. she showed them the secrets of the fruits, the dancing, the spices.

she had drawn a line and said this and this and that is mine and now, theirs. 

they belonged to her as much as they did him. she would not shrink herself so that her children may claim his dragon blood, his follies, his faraway dreams. 

and she started smiling more. she took off her veils, run bare feet when no one was looking. she said her name with assurance. she wrote to doran, to oberyn letters of joy. 

_come, brothers! come and see my kingdom! ___

__ashara was there too, with her eyes and her lips, her kindness and her wit. her hair was like silk in elia's hand, their hands permanently linked. ashara was hers, she had been ever since they were children, running around in the water gardens and dreaming of tales and legends. she was still hers, now more than ever._ _

___I have conquered love, brothers. ____ _

____elia was not afraid. she meant to take control. unbowed, unbent, unbroken were the words of her kin and she had a dragon to champion. so when aerys suspiciously passed away in his sleep, she didn't even blink. women survive because they must and her sweet mother in law was no exception._ _ _ _

____she went to her. her eyes were sad and her hands kept shaking, a trapped animal bound in silk. she held her. she promised. there would be no worries. there would be no more pain or hardship, for either of them. this could be home._ _ _ _

____she could make it so._ _ _ _

____the court became dornish, under her capable rule and the lords begrudgingly came to heel, pushed by the overflowing love the people showed her. this was her golden age and to them, she was good queen elia, the bringer of peace. they all cheered for the queen that fed them, protected them. she was no longer the ill-wed, the crone, the unwanted. wherever she went, she shone._ _ _ _

____the day rhaenys became queen was the day she left king's landing. ashara missed the sun, adventure and a chance for their love to be free. she wished to travel, they were older now and she insisted that they must. she told her of the free cities, of yi ti and asshai. elia had smiled at her lover's request, eager, a girl again.____

____the world was ahead.__ _ _


End file.
